Sudden Impulse
by Vicki and Teazer
Summary: When Helen gets a job where Bob used to work, the family has to adjust to their new lifestyle when she's not with them for most of the day...and whatever comes their way over time. Will work on summary.
1. The Beginning

**Sudden Impulse**

Everyone knew Helen Parr as a sensible, practical woman. She always seemed to be prepared for anything, which was just as well, because she had a family consisting of a husband and three children to care for. Her eldest children, Violet and Dashiell, were always exasperated by her constant habit of attempting to teach them about "good values" and how she always managed to keep them in line. Most of all, she was the least impulsive member of the Parr family.

Which is why her conversation starter surprised the family over the dinner table one night.

"I'm thinking of getting a job."

There was the sudden clatter of forks and knives against china plates.

"A job?!"

"Who will look after the kids?"

"We'll practically be home alone!"

"No way!"

"What if someone breaks into the house?"

"AaaaAaaahh!!"

"Everyone SHUT UP!"

There was an instant silence.

"Look, I know that there would have to be a few adjustments," said Helen exasperatedly, "but I know that I can do this. I need something to do, and I strongly feel that I should be doing more to support the family."

"But Mom, you're already doing enough!" Violet protested.

"I want to do this," Helen replied stubbornly. "In case you don't remember, your father's been fired from his job and no one's been earning any money. AndI certainly don't think that it would look good if Bob were to apply for another job and his resume said 'has ability to strangle and otherwise maim his employer'!"

Bob's face flushed and Dash jumped on top of his chair. "But where would you go?" Dash demanded.

"Sit down…I would still live in the same house!" Helen answered testily. "I just wouldn't be home during the afternoon or school hours. You'll be fine. You and Violet are old enough to baby-sit Jack-Jack, and Bob will be home in case anybody catches on fire." She gathered up her dish and silverware and headed for the sink. "I've found out that there are job openings at Bob's old workplace because of—you know—and the interviews are tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?!" Violet choked. "You're going to go get interviewed for some random job first thing tomorrow?"

"Hardly random," said Helen defensively as she returned to her seat at the table. "Your father had worked there for fifteen years, remember?"

"But still! It'd be so weird without you around the house with us."

"You. Will. Be. Fine!" Helen insisted. "I trust that none of you would cause the house to explode when I'm gone!"

A hacking sound announced the arrival of two balls of flame landing in the middle of the table and setting the tablecloth ablaze. Dash and Violet jumped from their chairs while Jack-Jack proceeded to cough, producing more fire and his skin turning a scarlet color. Fearing the baby boy in his current state, the two of them hurried to get water and Helen quickly scooped Jack-Jack up and attempted to calm him down. Bob helped his older children put out the flames using a metal pot and a pitcher of water.

Soon Jack-Jack's skin returned to its regular pink hue. Bob gingerly picked up the scalding pot with his fingertips and walked it to the sink. "You're right Helen," he said to his wife as he turned the cold water on. "We'll be able to manage."

**A/N: In case you haven't noticed, this is my first 'Incredibles' fic. I saw this last weekend and really loved it, so yeah…This is only chapter one, and it's going to get more interesting in later chapters, but please review and give me your constructive input. :0) **


	2. Home Alone

**Sudden Impulse**

Helen began preparing for her interview early on Saturday, the next morning. Clad in her best suit and carrying with a record of her past small jobs and college education, she bid her family farewell at roughly eight o'clock in the living room. "Take care of the kids, Bob," she murmured as she planted a quick kiss on his cheek and handed over Jack-Jack. "This is going to be your first few hours watching them by yourself…so make sure that nothing bad happens or that anyone engages in any hazardous activity while I'm away, okay? No pressure."

"Yeah," Bob replied uneasily. "Nothing bad. No hazardous activities. No pressure…got it. Well, have a good day at…my work, honey." He returned the kiss, and Helen gave him one last grateful grin before leaving.

As soon as the door was closed Violet and Dash turned around and began to walk away.

"I'm going outside."

"I'm going to my room."

But before they could get away Jack-Jack gave in to a horrible sneeze. A jet of fire and steam exploded out of his mouth and hit the carpet, scorching it straight to the floorboards. Bob realized in horror that the baby he was holding was beginning to turn a bright red color. He hastily sat him down on the couch, only to have him sneeze again and set more flames to accompany the first.

"Does that kid have a cold or something?" Violet yelled with annoyance as she and Dash rushed to their father's aid. Violet did the first thing that she could think of to do and produced a force field around the fire. Unfortunately Jack-Jack had another hacking cough and emitted another fireball, which was deflected off of the force field and thrown into the wall. Bits of plaster and chipped paint burned off of the wall and littered the floor as the flame flickered restlessly.

"Smooth, Einstein!" Dash snapped angrily.

"Damn!" Violet cursed as she withdrew the force field.

"Don't say damn," Bob scolded as he picked up Jack-Jack again and sped into the kitchen to retrieve as much water as he could. He sat Jack-Jack in his high chair, grabbed a large plastic bucket, put it in the sink and filled it to the top with water. He returned to the living room to see Dash and Violet proceeding to beat each other up in the middle of the floor dangerously close to the fire.

"Don't you dare hit me!"

"Ow! Quit pulling my hair!"

"Stop! That tickles!"

"I'm going to KILL you!"

"Not if I kill you first!"

"Stop killing each other! And don't roll into the fire!" Bob cried out in dismay. He grabbed them both by the shirt collars and cast them all the way to the staircase in one throw. Then he heaved the bucket of water at the fire with such force that it smothered it almost instantly. He ran back to the kitchen, came back with more water, and attacked the spot on the wall, luckily ending up with the same result.

Bob put the bucket down on the floor. He looked around the room sadly, because of the large burn marks in the carpet and wall. He went back to the kitchen to get Jack-Jack, and sighed with relief when he found that he was back to normal and wasn't sneezing or coughing. "Don't think that this was your fault, all right Jack?" he said as he picked the baby boy up. "You can't control your powers yet. Besides that, you have a cold. But don't worry, when you grow and gain more control we'll find out how to beat it before it gets this bad."

Jack-Jack simply grinned his baby grin and gurgled happily.

For the next few hours Bob, Violet, and Dash hovered around the kitchen while Jack-Jack napped in his room, nervously awaiting the arrival of the Lady-Of-The-House. When she did come, Bob got up and went to greet her while Dash zipped up the stairs and Violet went into her invisible state before she followed him. The two of them didn't want to be around when Helen reached the living room.

"Hi honey! Uh, while you were gone, something happened that wasn't exactly in our complete—" Bob's voice began.

"WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED IN HERE?!"

A/N: That's it for chapter two. Nothing much to say, except I should probably mention:

**DISCLAIMER: I do not, nor plan to, own the Incredibles. If I did, I wouldn't get the same fun out of writing fanfiction as I usually do. :0)**


	3. The Call Back

**Sudden Impulse**

Five minutes later the family (excluding Jack, who was still in his room) were seated together at the dining room table. An unearthly silence hung in the air as everyone waited for everyone else to say something.

Finally Helen broke the silence. "Okay, before I go around making motherly accusations…what happened when I was gone?"

Bob, Violet, and Dash were all reluctant to answer. At the looks from his children, Bob answered first. "Before I say anything else…I think that Jack-Jack has something of a cold."

"No kidding," Violet muttered aside to Dash.

Bob went into a thorough explanation of the scorch marks in the living room. "Whenever he coughs or sneezes, he shoots fire. I don't know what the cause of this is, but we should take him to a doctor or something so that he can be diagnosed."

Helen rolled her eyes. "Of course Bob," she said sarcastically. "Of course we can take our baby to a doctor, reveal that he's a super, and have all of our secret identities discovered to be advertised on every billboard in town! We have to take this seriously!"

"I _am _taking this seriously," Bob retorted.

"Then you would think of the consequences before trying an instant solution!" Helen snapped.

There was another long, uneasy pause.

This time Violet broke the silence by changing the subject. "How did your interview go, Mom?" she asked cautiously.

"It was fine. No one there seemed entirely keen on hiring me, though. For one thing they still remember who my husband is."

Bob grinned weakly. "I'm sure that they'll consider hiring you, Helen," he assured her. "I know that they won't base your talent on my actions."

"Well, we'll find out if they did for sure soon," said Helen. "Supposedly they're going to call us either tonight or tomorrow morning to tell me whether I'm being accepted by the company or not. If I am, then work begins on Monday."

Bob noticed that Dash and Violet had already excused themselves from the table. "Our children get bored _way _too easily," he decided.

"Agreed." Helen got up from her chair. "I think I'll start dinner so that I have something to do while I wait for the phone call…can you watch the kids?"

Bob gulped, but tried not to allow his despair to shine through. "Of course, honey. Sure…" He got up and exited the kitchen.

**XXXXX**

It was at around seven o'clock that evening when the phone rang for Helen. With the table already cleared, she had gotten up and answered it, while everyone else remained silent and watched from the living room. After about a full minute of discussion with the person at the other end of the line, her eyes shone with relief and gratitude. When she had hung up she rushed to Bob and grabbed him into an embrace. "I've got the job, Bob!" she said excitedly.

"That's…that's great," Bob congratulated her dazedly as he hugged her back. He couldn't believe that they had hired his wife after the incident from not so long ago—but he was happy for her all the same.

What he wasn't happy about was the kind of things he would have to handle by himself in the very near future. Maybe he could start leaving the house earlier on Wednesdays…

**A/N: ****Sorry that was so short, but I should have chapter 4 done soon. Anyway…could I have a suggestion for a genre? Currently it's General, but I think that it should be categorized under something a little more descriptive. I just don't know what it is yet.**

**Rumpelteazer**


	4. When Dad was off bowling

**Sudden Impulse**

The first two weekdays had gone by without so much as a hitch. Bob managed Jack and the house while everyone else was off to either school or work, and he learned to play police officer when school was over (no matter how unwilling he was from the start). But when Wednesday rolled around, he was more than willing the excuse himself from the household at four o'clock in the afternoon with Lucius for another day of "bowling".

"All of you, be good while I'm away okay?" This was much more of an expectant order than a question as Bob grabbed his coat off of its hanger and opened the front door, where Lucius was waiting for him. "Violet, you're in charge…and both of you, don't forget to do your homework and that the fire extinguisher is on the shelf in the hall in case you need it!"

Violet prayed that they wouldn't. "Sure Dad, I can take care of…"

She realized that she wasn't talking to anyone; the coat rack next to the door swayed as a result from the vibrations produced by Bob's slamming of the door before it finally stood still. Dash had run to the living room and switched on the television as soon as his father was gone. Violet sighed and, figuring that she could try to be useful while both of the parental units were absent, puttered upstairs to see what needed to be done.

Out of curiosity, Violet slipped into her brother's room. It was extremely messy, with bits of random junk such as clothes and toys thrown here and there and gathered up in all of the corners. Violet walked to his desk, which was topped off with Dash's computer monitor and other clothing bits. She noticed a pile of crude and unflattering pencil drawings of Jack-Jack on top of the mess. Disgusted, she took them in her hand and crumpled them up before casting them into a nearby wastebasket.

Just then she heard her brother coming up the staircase. Violet panicked and quickly became invisible before she ran to the corner and managed to brace herself between the walls, an almost ideal hiding technique.

Dash swaggered into the room, slamming the door behind him. "Where the heck is my game console?!" he demanded to no one in particular. Violet watched as he dived under his bed and began to toss stuff out from under it as he searched. When he found nothing he got up and went to check his desk, but when he got there he noticed that something was missing. "My drawings!" he gasped angrily. Suddenly he looked instinctively at Violet's corner. "Violet, I know that you're in here!" he yelled.

Violet trembled but didn't say anything.

Dash went through the junk on his desk and withdrew a wooden ruler. He got up, walked over to the corner, and prodded Violet almost painfully in the stomach. Every part of her except her head became visible as she dropped from the wall and grabbed the ruler. "Ow! Don't do that!" she complained.

"Get out of my room!"

"What do you have against Jack-Jack?" Headless Violet asked.

"He ruined my life, that's what!" Dash yelled as he punched her. In anger Violet threw herself on top of him and they wrestled each other, trying to give the other more pain than what they were receiving. The two of them rolled around on the floor, hitting each other with the ruler, until they hit the bedside table, which fell to the floor with a loud crash. Dash and Violet froze as they could hear the sound of a baby crying down the hall.

"Oh-no! Jack-Jack!" They dropped the ruler, quickly got to their feet and ran to the nursery.

Not surprisingly Dash beat his sister to the crib. Inside of it Jack in his demonic form was howling and a few steamy green tears ran down his face. One of the bars of the crib and his pillow were scorched. Violet rushed to Dash's aid and peered over the bars of the crib. "Jack, are you all right?" She reached down to pick him up, only to be told off by an array of fresh howls. "What? Jack-Jack, it's only me!" She attempted to lift him from the crib again but he fell backwards and lashed out one of his black claws.

Dash beat her shoulder impatiently. "Why do you think he's crying? You don't have a head!"

"Oh…!" Violet quickly made her head visible and outstretched her arms toward Jack-Jack again. "See? It's just me!" she repeated, wearing a ridiculously uncomfortable grin. The baby simply gave her a scandalized look. Dash frowned at Violet and picked up his brother himself. "I think that he's been sneezing again," he said. "We should take him downstairs before he burns down his own room."

Violet agreed with him and followed Dash out of the room and downstairs, secretly enjoying that Dash cared for the baby.

Jack-Jack fought furiously against Dash as he was carried into the living room. When Dash tried to sit him down on the couch, he had to grab Jack-Jack again because the baby instantly made a mad attempt to crawl over the armrest. "Is there anything we can give him that would get him to stay still?" Dash asked crossly. "Do we have any candy or something?"

"Oh, sure! Feed him something contaminated with sugar, why don't you?" Violet exclaimed.

Dash scowled at his sister's remark. Suddenly he had an idea and, after recovering the television remote from under one of the couch cushions, switched the television back on and turned the channel to a pink-and-pastels children's show. Jack-Jack's head snapped to attention as he quickly became absorbed in the program, and the scarlet color of his skin seemed to melt off of him while his claws retracted.

Relieved, Violet sank down onto the couch next to Dash. She would have to remember all of the time slots for every day that that show was going to be on from now on.

**XXXXX**

All was well when Bob and Lucius had returned, with Jack-Jack up in his room napping and Dash and Violet quietly completing their homework. The two eldest children gave their father large, innocent smiles as he passed. He wasn't going to find anything burnt to a crisp today.

**A/N: This will probably be finished soon, but I –might- make a sequel. Anyway, I'd like to thank Vicki for giving me the idea that Jack-Jack has a cold…such a good sister (most of the time). :0) Sooo…tell me what you think!**

**Rumpelteazer**


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